Today, I thought I would tell a short story about my experience with the Bowen Technique.

The Bowen Technique is a remedial therapy.  It was developed by Tom Bowen who lived in the outback in Australia.  It is not clear how he developed the technique but it gained a reputation of being very effective as people traveled miles to have a treatment. 

Bowen is an unusual therapy in that there are "rest" periods in the treatment - the therapist leaves the treatment room and allows the body to have a rest.  The rest periods are interspersed into the treatment session.  Normally, a series of "four moves" are made on the body.  Then the therapist moves away from the body, allowing the body to rest.  The therapist then returns and continues with another series of moves.

The Bowen move is bascially a move (roll) across muscle tissue.  To me, when Bowen moves are done across my back, it feels as if the back has become a stringed instrument and the therapist is "plucking" the strings.  The moves are gentle but the treatment is surprisingly powerful.

So now you have the background, back to the short story.

A friend had broken their ankle and it had to put into a cast.  It had seemed to heal OK.  The cast was removed and she had had physiotherapy  sessions and had worked on balance boards, etc.  She had be signed off.  Yet when you watched her walk, there was just a slight "limp" or something not quite right with her gait.  The ankel itself was still occasionally painful.  She was still relying on a walking stick.

Anyway, I suggested a Bowen treatment which consisted on the "basic" Bowen plus the addition of moves for the ankle.  There was no obvious change after the session. 

Later we went out to a garden centre and she was using the walking stick.  Suddenly, she said "I feel I don't need to use the stick now."   The stick was taken back to the car!

Bowen, a gentle, effective treatment.  Have you booked a session?
     

I've just done another course on integrated myofascial release.  The course was entitled "myfoascial release for the temporomandibular joint (TMJ)".  This is basically the joint that allows your jaw to open and close.

When doing this type of bodywork, you don't just work on the joint in question.  In myofascial work, you look at the body as being interconnected, a restriction in one area will affect another area, so you work on the supporting structures.  Structures that affect the jaw include the neck and the shoulders as well as muscles in the face. 

Release work was done on the neck and shoulders.  Then work was done on the muscles that control the jaw in particular the pterygoids. (Sounds like a type of dinosaur!)  This is where you have to open your mouth!  This is also where you make the amazing discovery that the body holds secret tensions of its own.  These tensions are only revealed when you put specific pressure on the muscles.  Wow!  Who would believe that small muscles in the face can be so tender!

Fantastic feeling once the work was done!

So what happened for me?  I discovered that working on the jaw changed how I felt when walking.  My body moved more easily!  A wonderfully feeling of free movement.  Who would have thought that working on the jaw would release the hips and legs!